Week 31 – For a healthier body and mind, think PURE!

It’s common knowledge that in order to improve your mental and physical wellbeing, you have to adopt a healthy lifestyle! There are many approaches to take but one that is both successful and readily available in Ottawa goes by the brand name of PURE!

Please Note: Pure Yoga generously offered me a class at no charge and a gift card to try meals at Pure Kitchen!

If you haven’t heard of these sister businesses you are in for a treat! First let’s talk yoga, shall we? You can practise yoga in all types of locations but Pure Yoga Ottawa happens to be one of the best in the business!

Why? Because they specialize in the art of hot yoga! When you take a classe there you gain access to top quality yoga classes but most importantly you become part of the Pure Yoga community.

Pure Yoga leaves you feeling like a member rather then just another client!

Pure Yoga Classes

They vary from Pure Flow: a series of classic poses that stretch and strengthen your body, to Pure beats a high energy yoga class enhanced with upbeat and current music to Pure Sculpt a more advanced yoga class meant to tone muscles. They have many more varieties of classes, see the schedule for more information.

Pure Yoga Workshops & Training

If you are looking for something a bit more in depth, why not attend a Yoga or Nutrition Workshop? Pure Yoga continuously offers a variety of workshops/training to enhance your health and yoga practise knowledge.

Pure Yoga merchandise

While you visit the studio, make sure to have a look at the yoga merchandise! They sell quality yoga supplies (mats, clothing, towels, etc.) and other fun items such as candles, jewellery, essentials oils, water bottles and so on.

The Pure Yoga studio I visited was located in Westboro and parking can be a bit tricky! I found a quiet street near Churchill Avenue and parked there. As my sense of direction is horrible and I didn’t take note of the address, I managed to get lost on Richmond Road while looking for the studio. I eventually entered a flower shop and as I approached the florist I said: “Um.. I think I am lost!” She looks at my yoga mat and responds: “Oh dear.. yes you are. This is not a yoga studio but you can use the open space over here if you want!” We laughed and she explained that Pure Yoga is literally across the street. Oops!!

I walk over and as I enter the studio I noticed it smelled of essential oils which was really calming. I was greeted by the receptionist, Zu, and she directed me to the women’s change room. I was able to quickly change into my workout outfit and joined my friend in the class. The room was very warm as you would expect in Hot Yoga and quite full! Even though the classroom was filled, I still had plenty of room to complete the moves.

What you need to bring:

comfortable workout clothes

yoga mat

towel

water bottle

lock

Ciara our instructor lead the class by demonstrating the moves and, at times, by describing them. As I don’t practise Yoga often I was sometimes utterly lost! Oh, you know! That girl who is still bent over while everyone it standing upright, that was me! Don’t worry if this happens, simply do your best to mimic the more experienced members of the class. By the end, I caught on to the name of a few poses which was encouraging! If you are doing a lot of weight lifting, hot yoga really helped me stretch and relax my muscles therefore I highly recommend it, yes that includes you boys!

New to Pure Yoga and want to try?

Here are but a few of the available options:

Intro month promotion

Available for $40 and you get unlimited access to classes for a month;

Karma Power class

A $5 class (cash only) offered on Friday evenings at 7:30pm. It’s a very affordable way to try the studio.

Once the class finished I made my way back to the change room to shower before heading to Pure Kitchen, which is at walking distance. I will admit that the showers made me feel a little uncomfortable since they are slightly open. If you are a very private person you may want to keep that in mind and possibly shower at home! Otherwise, the change room was big enough to accommodate the flow of women and even had complimentary hair dryers and hair straighteners to use! Overall, I had a great experience and believe that if you want to experience hot yoga at it’s best than give Pure Yoga a try!

Now on to Pure Kitchen we go…

What type of restaurant is Pure Kitchen? It’s a vegetarian restaurant and juice bar. Therefore the menu is filled with nutritious food options that are vegetarian or vegan. They also offer nut-free and gluten-free options.

On our way to Pure Kitchen, we spot my friend’s neighbour inside The Barley Mow Pub but choose to continue to the restaurant. It was around 8:00pm when we reached Pure Kitchen and we notice a line. I know Pure Kitchen is popular, but I was surprised to see just how in demand it is. We walk in and are advised it’s going to be up to an hour wait.

What do we do? Should we go somewhere else? Well that’s the cool thing. They took down our name and number and would reach us by phone when our table is ready. I thought that was great customer service since it meant we had the liberty to pass the time anywhere we wanted. So naturally we walked back to The Barley Mow to join the neighbour for a drink. I certainly didn’t mind, since I had noticed that the bartender was pretty cute. In typical fashion, I ordered a sparkling water with a cherry! The bartender didn’t give me one cherry, no no he brought me an entire glass filled with cherries! It was pretty priceless! Then 30 minutes later we get notified that our table is ready.

Once at Pure Kitchen, we asked if our table of two could become a table for three since we had another friend join us. They were able to accommodate us no problem which was really nice! Now to keep things a surprise I hadn’t looked at the menu online prior to arriving since I wanted to discover my options in person.

Everything, I mean EVERYTHING sounded delicious! From almond, blueberry & banana smoothies to loaded avocado appetizers or even tempeh BLT wraps with a side of fries and in house tomato dip sauce (like ketchup). We looked at the menu for a while trying to decide and I have to say the dish names are really cute, have a look for yourself: Pure Kitchen Menu.

We started off with water to drink (it’s all we were craving after Hot Yoga) and an appetizer to share, a plate of Radical Cauliflower Wings (cauliflower covered in Korean BBQ sauce, scallions, cilantro and sesame seeds). I am getting hungry just thinking about them…

As a main meal, I ordered a bowl of Enlightened! Was is that you ask? It’s a green Thai curry dish with vegetables, lime jalapeno tofu and rice noodles.

The lovely ladies I was eating with had walnut mushroom burgers, I took a shot of the Awesome burger!

Fun fact: If you can’t decided on a side of fries vs salad, you can ask to split your side into both! Cool, right?

We quickly dug in and enjoyed every single bite. I don’t often eat out since finding a healthy restaurant is difficult but Pure Kitchen managed to combine health with amazing taste. This is why it is at the top of my list and will certainly become one of your favourites too!

Thank you so much to Jen Conlon and Caitlin Doan for the wonderful opportunity, I look forward to going back!

Comments ( 2 )

Oh, I have to let you know that a friend was looking for the name of an archery place on Bank. This was familiar to me, based on reading one of your blogs … searched prettymesmirizing archery & found your blog. This was the place she was looking for : )